European stocks largely ended in the red on Monday, as investors remained cautious ahead of impending U.S. consumer and producer prices reports. This hesitation follows February's U.S. payroll figures, which surpassed expectations.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 saw a decrease of 0.36%. Similarly, Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 fell 0.4% and 0.1% respectively. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 fared slightly better, increasing by 0.12%, while Switzerland's SMI experienced a 0.33% uptick.
Meanwhile, in other European markets like Austria, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Turkey, the markets closed weaker. Conversely, Belgium, Poland, Russia, and Spain enjoyed higher market closures, with Portugal remaining neutral.
In the UK, St. James's Place saw a decrease of 3.6%. Other companies such as Airtel Africa, Centrica, Convatec Group, Experian, JD Sports Fashion, Weir Group, Aviva, Rio Tinto, Halma, Legal & General Group, Vodafone Group, and RS Group experienced losses between 1 to 2%.
However, there were also gains, with Admiral Group increasing by almost 5%. Antofagasta, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, and AstraZeneca saw an increase of between 2.5 to 3.1%. Imperial Brands boosted more than 2.5% after announcing a £1.1 billion share repurchase program.
In Germany, Continental was down 4.6%, with companies such as Brenntag, Zalando, SAP, Covestro, Infineon, Sartorius, RWE, Porsche, HeidelbergCement, MTU Aero Engines, Symrise, and Fresenius also experiencing losses between 1 to 2.8%. Yet, Vonovia increased by over 2%, and Deutsche Bank, Bayer, Henkel, Qiagen, Beiersdorf, Puma, and Volkswagen saw a 0.5 to 2% increase.
In Paris, WorldLine shares dropped over 4%, and Teleperformance suffered a near 4% decrease. Alstom, Publicis Groupe, Schneider Electric, Thales, and Capgemini also faced a 1 to 3% decrease. On the other hand, companies such as Eurofins Scientific, Unibail Rodamco, Sanofi, Credit Agricole, Stellantis, Bouygues, and BNP Paribas gained between 0.5 to 1.5%.
